Help with water stains

[Alessa]

Hi everyone!

I would like to know any suggestion on how to improve the bottom area of this image. As you could see there is a lot of water stains and color pollution and I have no more more tricks in my bag. Besides, any other indication about the overall image will be appreciated.

Almost restore image



Original image



Thanks for your attention.  :)

Alessandra

[Mhayes]

 Alessandra, you are off to a good start. First question: How comfortable are you in doing layer masks? If the answer is yes, then here is what I would do. Decide which area you would like to work on first, for example, the baby's top. You have some really good areas to borrow and of course the fun of working with stripes.  >:D Make a duplicate layer and then take the lasso tool and pick an area you think would work in another damage area. I would next pick the lasso tool with a feather of 2 pixels and circle an area you wish to use in another area. After doing that hit the short cut "Ctrl J" (or Cmd J/Mac). That will put that selection on a separate layer above. If you hit the "Ctrl V" key, you will be able to move your selection into place. Here is where the fun comes in as you will then decide if you want to rotate your selection, transform, warp etc. From there a layer mask where you conceal all will hide your work and then with your background white (reveal) brush on that layer you will paint back in the parts you want. If you make a mistake, you can correct by hitting X and changing the brush back to conceal. When you get it to your satisfaction, you may merge that layer with the one below, but still keeping the bottom intact. You may also want to do layer groups.

Hope that helps.

Margie

[Alessa]

Lets have fun with layer mask! Many thanks Margie!

[Alessa]

Hi! I think the water stains problem had been resolve, however, I would like to know any suggestion before submitting the picture. Thank you! Alessandra

Corrected Image


Almost corrected


Original

[Mhayes]

Allesandra, you've come a long way with this one, but unfortunately there is still water damage and a lot of it is on the baby's top. Also, and really harder is the baby's finger that seems to fade away due to the damage. A minor pic is the arrow on the baby's pillow that could be tweaked to get rid of the reddish mud cast. See below.



Below is a somewhat quick and dirty on how I would approach the baby's top and the stripes which are always a lot of fun (I lie). I like to find a good area and you do have one on the baby's sleeve. I take the lasso tool and circle the area and it does not have to be exact as I will use a layer mask for what I want to show.



I use short cut keys (Ctrl V) to move the selection that is at the top. Once I move into place I will then use the "Transform Tool" to help me get the right perspective. Because this was a fairly large piece and I needed to see better how I wanted to line it up; I reduced the opacity. Later I will bring it back to 100%



When you hit "Warp" you will be able to take your cursor and work the lines, points, handles--whatever gives you the desired effect. What I have done could have been better and showed the roll in the shirt.



The final result which still leave a lot more work shows how you can redo stripes where you have good areas and how you can manipulate them by the use of the warp transform tool. Plus, you can use the short cut key Ctrl T and that will allow you to rotate and resize. From there I hit the Alt key and hit the layer mask icon under your layers. Then with a soft paint brush with the foreground to white I will paint in areas I like. If you mess up, hit the X key and your foreground will be black which will conceal all again. Layer masks are really your best friend.



I also use the same technique to try to give more definition to the baby's fingers. They still do not look right, but closer. Had I a lot more time I would have increased the fold or ripple look under the print on the top and also has a smoother transition of the stripes.

Hope that helps.

Margie

[Alessa]

 :up: Thanks for the tutorial! I will have a lot of fun after work during this week!

[Mhayes]

By "fun: you mean in the very loose sense of the word?  :funny:

Margie